Photo from Mayor Rex Gatchalian Facebook account
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Vicente Sotto III is opposing the shift to a completely cashless toll collection system on Southern and Northern Luzon expressways.
“RFID (radio frequency identification) to all is really a bad idea! Silly, to say the least!” Sotto said in a tweet on Friday.
RFID is a cashless payment scheme whereby digital data encoded in tags are captured by scanners at toll gates of the South Luzon Expressway, North Luzon Expressway and other interconnected expressways.
RFID to all is really a bad idea! Silly, to say the least!
— Tito Sotto (@sotto_tito) December 11, 2020
“They should have prepared for it before they implemented the proposal. I drive my car daily. I know the experiences encountered daily,” Sotto said in a separate message to reporters.
“I do not use bodyguards, escorts or driver[s]. I know what the public is suffering from. I’m only escorted when I go to Malacañang. Now, all toll gates are cramped,” he added.
Sotto issued the statement following glitches and heavy traffic experienced by motorists amid the implementation of the mandatory cashless payment scheme on expressways.
The Senate Public Services Committee is set to summon Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade amid the “lamentable experience” of motorists from his department’s alleged “ill-studied” order for expressway operators to implement cashless toll collection.
It was the DOTr that earlier ordered the full implementation of cashless toll collection system at expressways and major toll roads in a bid to reduce physical contact in these areas as a measure against the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier this week, Valenzuela City suspended the business permit of NLEX Corporation for failing to address the heavy traffic that its cashless toll collection has been causing in the city.
Mayor Rex Gatchalian personally served the Executive Order he signed suspending NLEX Corp.’s operation to the company’s offices in Valenzuela.
The suspension order means motorists will be able to pass through the NLEX within the city toll-free.